Of laundry and the kindness of strangers

My mom calls me Pollyanna. I almost always see the good in something. Not always--look back through my posts and there are rants here and there. But mostly what I mean is that I truly believe in the essential goodness of people. That there are way more good folks than bad, despite what the network news would like us to think. That there isn't a murderer around every corner. That it is not only OK to talk to someone you don't know, but in most cases it is good to do so. I suppose the fact that I am a relatively accomplished martial artist contributes to the confidence I feel in doing that. But mostly, I think I have really always pretty much felt that way.

I'll write about our camping trip later, when I don't have a wicked migraine. But I do want to quickly post about our post camping laundry. Usually we have 2 washers in our house. We have a LOT of wash. Something on the order of 4 loads daily. We were camping 5 days. That would be a 20 load back log. Except it was probably more than that because there were extra things that were needed for chilly (45 degree) evenings. Fleeces to wrap the kids in which subsequently were trailed through the campsite till their original color was nigh onto indistinguishable. Bathing suits and towels galore due to 2 beach trips and one trek to the pool. Yup, way more than 20 loads. Right now one washer is ill and can't be used. Hopefully a repairman will come soon to fix it and restore it to health. Meanwhile, on a daily basis, the single washer is okay. But clearly we were never going to get caught up any time soon with only the single washer.

I suggested that I visit the laundramat and throw the clothes in 3 of the super duper sized washers and catch us up in one fell swoop. K eyed me dubiously. "You WANT to go there?" she asked. I was game. Grabbed my diet coke, my Clive Cussler novel and three ginormous totes of sorted laundry. I was off.

I am not sure it is universally true, but in our city, these facilities are not in the "better" parts of town. They are either in the truly seedy, the sort of "heading to seedy" or if one is lucky in the parts of town once known as seedy but supposedly making a comeback. The very last is where my laundramat is. There is a new bit of development nearby but mostly the neighborhood is still forlorn. Filled with tenement multi-family houses in poor repair, with several bars, and a gigantic liquor store nearby and a reputation for being a "rougher" area.

I unload all my totes of dirty laundry into the facility. I peer around trying to find a coin machine. I have all paper money and no coins. I also don't own a debit card so I can't go to an ATM. Alas, there is no coin changing machine and none of the machines take anything but quarters. It is Labor Day and banks are closed. Hmmm, what is a desperate mom with a mountain of dirty laundry to do? I hie myself over to said package store and tell them my tale of woe as creatively as I can. The very curt man behind the counter says to wait till there is no one in the store. I am happy to do that. I stand there as unobstrusively as I can as people parade past me with more liquor than I would have believed possible. But eventually the flood of customers is stemmed for the moment and he asks how many quarters I needed. I said whatever he could give me and he offers to exchange $10.00 in quarters. Eureka! (by the way when I got home my wife had the hardest time believing they did this for me!)

Back to the laundramat I trundle, eager to get the washing underway. Hmmmm. There are no instructions on the machines. Literally. None. Nothing saying how many quarters to put in. I stand in front of the largest one and am trying to find something in ANY language that will tell me what to do. I simply don't want to believe that I have been flummoxed by mere machinery.

A fellow who'd been sitting near the door weaved his way over to me. Smelling like he had imbibed copious spirits he offers to help. I explain my predicament. He says the machine takes 18 quarters and shows me where to put them. I thank him, get it loaded, he puts the money in while i load the soap. I move to the next machine. This one has a different set up for the money and even my trusty helper is confused. By now a pleasant African couple have entered the laundry. The gentleman watches me and my tipsy helper while his wife is loading a different machine. He explains that we have not put the correct number of coins in the machine because it is a double load--one must load it with coins twice to make it start. Silly me, I thought that meant it took a double load of wash. DUH! Between the the three of us, we finally get two of the machines going.

I like Clive Cussler and enjoy his novels but I like talking to people more.
So when a young boy about my Rob's age came over and started chatting I was happy to put the book down. He thought it was funny how confused I was by the machines. He couldn't believe all my wash was from 5 days of camping and thought it was cool that we did that. He wanted to know what it was like. He was the oldest of 3 kids and we talked about how he helps his mom out with "stuff." My first loads finished and I took them out. I was exactly 3 quarters shy of being able to run another gigantic machine with the last of the laundry. I drove the finished laundry home to hang out on the lines and scrounged 3 more quarters and headed back. The African couple were still there and just started laughing when I reappeared. They laughed even harder when they heard I was running our home washer as well. I proudly loaded the machine and got the coins in and the soap and all first try. I felt like a pro by this time. We chatted about our kids, small stuff, nothing major, but time flew by and the buzzers on the machine went off.

It was a really congenial afternoon. People are not always nice, I am not naive. And I try never to intentionally put myself in a situation where I would truly be in danger. But I do believe that if we enter into relationships both large and small, open to the idea that people mostly want to do the right thing, that this will usually be the end result. So tonight I am grateful for unexpected kindness, for help freely given, and for laundry that is clean!